


Life Is What You Bake of It

by lucidscreamer



Series: 100 Yu-Gi-Oh Prompts [50]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Bread, Christmas Cookies, Domestic Fluff, Families of Choice, Gen, Hobbies, Holidays, Implied Relationships, POV Yami Yuugi | Atem, Slice of Life, Stress Baking, Yami Yuugi | Atem Has His Own Body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27932233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: As he adjusts to living in the modern world, Yami stress-bakes his way into the hearts of the Mutou family.
Relationships: Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi, Yami Yuugi & Mutou Family
Series: 100 Yu-Gi-Oh Prompts [50]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1266368
Comments: 10
Kudos: 37





	Life Is What You Bake of It

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the creation of Kazuki Takahashi. No ownership of the canon characters, settings, or events is claimed and none should be implied.
> 
> Prompts:  
> 88\. Inspiration (100 YGO Themes)  
> 02\. Simple gift (10 Per Genre Challenge; Table 7 - Fluff (Rated G-PG13))
> 
> Is it ironic that someone with Celiac is writing fic about lovingly baking bread? Hmmm.

No-one would have expected the Pharaoh to be a stress-baker. But, as he explained to Yugi while they sat in a kitchen redolent with the aromas of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves as they waited for the latest batch of gingerbread to bake, Yami found the challenge of each new recipe mentally stimulating. He also liked working with his hands, doing something physical such as stirring batter or kneading dough as a kind of moving meditation. 

It helped that, although he'd always had something of a sweet tooth, he found most modern desserts too sugary for his palate. Baking his own let him perfect the recipes to his own taste. (Yugi's enthusiastic reactions when presented with freshly baked brownies, cookies, and cakes certainly did nothing to discourage Yami's new hobby.)

And then there was _bread_.

While Yami enjoyed a few of the breads he purchased from a local bakery, the textures were almost always just strange enough (compared to what his restored memories expected) that he was soon searching cookbooks for bread recipes. Yeast-raised bread, he quickly discovered, was more challenging than his previous endeavors. Yeast was a finicky creature. But battle-honed instincts rose to the challenge and before long Yami was sharing warm loaves of bread with his family. He even learned how to make fluffy soft buns for Yugi's beloved burgers (which earned him quite the reward).

Baking did more than simply reduce Yami's "adjusting to the modern world" levels of stress. It let him contribute to the Mutou household and made him feel more like a genuine part of the family. It meant watching his partner's eyes light up with each new offering. It was watching Yugi's mother slowly go from stiff and wary around him to hugging him before she sliced into the birthday cake he had baked for her. It was reconstructing Grandma's lost recipe for Grandpa's favorite cookies, and seeing the old man's happiness when he tasted them again for the first time since her passing.

Today, it was sharing the kitchen with Yugi as they baked the foundations for something called a "gingerbread house" that would be a part of the festive decorations already beginning to adorn the Mutou residence.

Yami was still figuring out how he fit in the jigsaw puzzle of his new life, but with his baking he thought he'd found a corner piece. It was a good place to begin.


End file.
